Meet Arun Kumar Vatakke, Bengaluru man who became an overnight crorepati, won Rs 44 crore in lottery

A Bengaluru resident, Arun Kumar Vatakke Koroth, has recently become a millionaire after winning the grand prize of Dh20 million (Rs 44,75,67,571) in the Big Ticket draw series number 250 held in Abu Dhabi. He had purchased his winning ticket, number 261031, on March 22 through the Big Ticket website, and this was his second attempt at the raffle. Mr Koroth learned about the Big Ticket live draws from his friends and started buying tickets online.

Upon receiving the call from the show's host informing him of his win, Mr Koroth initially thought it was a prank call and hung up, even blocking the phone number. But when he received a call from a different number, he realized that he had actually won the grand prize. ''I could not believe that I had won the first prize. I am still in disbelief. I bought this ticket through the ‘buy two get one free' option. The ticket I won was the third one,'' he said in an interview with Khaleej Times.

Mr Koroth, who is currently undergoing knee surgery in a hospital, plans to use the money to fulfill his dream of starting a business. ''I have a dream. I will try to achieve the same,'' he said.

Another Indian national, Suresh Mathan, who resides in Bahrain, won the second prize of Dh100,000 (Rs 2,237,837), while the third prize of Dh90,000 was won by an Oman-based Indian national, Muhammed Shefeek.

The Big Ticket raffle is a popular lottery draw in the UAE that offers big cash prizes to winners. The lottery is drawn every month, and the grand prize is usually around Dh15 million to Dh20 million. The winners are selected randomly, and the draws are conducted live in Abu Dhabi.

Read more: Meet Bernard Arnault, world's richest man as per Forbes Billionaires List 2023 with a net worth of Rs 17 lakh crores